Calcium dusting

[ericchaos]

I know it's important to dust the feeders with calcium, especially when being fed to babies. But, at petsmart they have a sort of jelly to feed the crickets. It's advertised as being a source of gutfeeding them and being high in calcium. The woman at petsmart said it would serve the same purpose as dusting the crickets, but she works at petsmart and I don't trust anything they say.

Is dusting better than the jelly? Is there a difference?

This is the specific product I saw:
(sorry for the large size)

 

[iLOVEmySPIKE]

uhhhhhhh! people at petsmart are dumb lol. NOOO tht is cricket feeder tht is good to feed the crickets and it is gutloading. BUT calcium dusting is still mandatory i belive tht this specific brand is giving thecrickets calcium but i dont belive the bearded dragon would be getting the calcium it needs through this. But this is just my opinion.

 

[MrWhite]

well, first thing right off the bat is the jelly does not have any D3. another thing is what happens to the calcium once the cricket drinks it, is it converted/absorbed in the cricket and is no longer calcium? I don't know...

I would stick to dusting crickets with calc+D3, that way you know for sure your beardie is getting unprocessed calc+d3.

This is just my opinion of course.

 

[ericchaos]

I guess I'll stick to dusting lol. The only ingredients in it are water, calcium, and coloring. So I'm assuming its just a source of water for the crickets, hence the name "Quencher"

 

[iLOVEmySPIKE]

actually i wouldnt give d3. becuase if u know d3 is an alternative for reptiles who dont get natural sunlight so u shoudl give d3 to a leopard gecko who doesnt get a uvb light. But a bearded dragon's uvb light is creating d3 naturally so thts y calcium powder without d3 is all thts needed becuase to much d3 can be overdosed. But remember dont think becuase u give d3 u can skip using a UVB fixture becuase thts not true lol

 

[ericchaos]

actually i wouldnt give d3. becuase if u know d3 is an alternative for reptiles who dont get natural sunlight so u shoudl give d3 to a leopard gecko who doesnt get a uvb light. But a bearded dragon's uvb light is creating d3 naturally so thts y calcium powder without d3 is all thts needed becuase to much d3 can be overdosed. But remember dont think becuase u give d3 u can skip using a UVB fixture becuase thts not true lol

I'm not questioning your judgment, but can anyone else confirm this?

I'm still new to this, but I've always read that you should dust them with calcium and d3.

 

[MrWhite]

hmmm, that's odd, I've been told by just about every source that beardies need D3 because the UVB from the reptisun 10.0 bulb won't allow the beardie to produce enough D3 and therefore needs a supplement.

 

[iLOVEmySPIKE]

thats ok.. i understand i have been doing this with no problems and i learned this from a couple breeders

 

[MrWhite]

I do understand that if you are using a mercury vapor bulb for UVB then you do not use D3 because it's much stronger then a fluorescent bulb

 

[iLOVEmySPIKE]

actually mr white! u may be right. The mercury vapor bulbs are very strong so maybe tht is what i heard and the breeders tht told me tht both use MVB. thnks for tht lol

 

[ericchaos]

I do understand that if you are using a mercury vapor bulb for UVB then you do not use D3 because it's much stronger then a fluorescent bulb

Would you recommend a mercury vapor bulb over a reptisun 10.0? I was gonna replace my current (very bad) compact reptiglo 10.0 with a reptisun, but if this is a viable option, I might reconsider.

 

[MrWhite]

I do understand that if you are using a mercury vapor bulb for UVB then you do not use D3 because it's much stronger then a fluorescent bulb

Would you recommend a mercury vapor bulb over a reptisun 10.0? I was gonna replace my current (very bad) compact reptiglo 10.0 with a reptisun, but if this is a viable option, I might reconsider.

I think all the regulars on this board recommend the reptisun 10.0 bulb. It's what I use also

 

[iLOVEmySPIKE]

i like the reptisun 10.0 i think the MVB are alittle too strong from my experience.

 

[ericchaos]

Instead of making a new thread, I'll just ask this here since it has a similar topic.

Is it possible to "overdust" the crickets? I think I put too much in and they are all covered in white. Is this how its supposed to be? Is it dangerous for them to get too much of the dust?

 

[MrWhite]

Is it possible to "overdust" the crickets? I think I put too much in and they are all covered in white. Is this how its supposed to be? Is it dangerous for them to get too much of the dust?

nope you can't over dust a cricket. when I dust my crickets, I first put some calcium in a plastic bag, then dump some crickets in, hold the top of the bag and start shaking the bag. Kind of like the old "shake and bake" commercials. The crickets will be completely covered in calcium and look white.